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Lincoln County received a check for $1,738,123 to compensate the county for the loss of property taxes on 921,816 acres of federal land within its borders.

County Treasurer Beverly Calaway said Tuesday that the figure represents a $42,128 increase over the amount received last year from the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

“We did some research and the acreage has gone down since 2013 by five sections of land,” she said. “We’re going to call and see what happened.”

Most of the land is part of the Lincoln National Forest or acreage handled by the Bureau of Land Management.

The total PILT paid out in New Mexico hit $37,770,954 covering 22,384,421 acres of land. Nationwide, PILT payments of $451.6 million were made to about 1,900 local governments. The money is generated by activities on the land such as timber sales, grazing permits and recreation.

In New Mexico, Lincoln County placed 10th in money dispersed. Leading the pack was Eddy County at $3,435,195 and 1,577,137 acres. Otero County was second at $3,166,859 and 1,529,891 acres, and Chaves County was third at $3,095,167 and 1,216,424 acres. Thirty-two of the 33 counties in the state receive PILT.

Calaway also announced that officials from the state property tax division will be in Carrizozo July 27 to conduct a sale of properties with delinquent taxes of three years or more.

“This month, we will go out in the field and try to collect those taxes,” she said. “The goal is for us to collect and for no one to lose their land.”

Calaway said she has not received the final list from the state of delinquent properties and owed taxes.